FSML: Expanding the Biological/Physical Sampling at Rutgers Marine Field Station at Tuckerton

了解鱼类和海洋生物进出沿海河口的运动对科学家来说是一个挑战，对了解它们的生态至关重要。解决这一问题是一个关键问题，因为过去30年收集的观察结果表明，大西洋中部的渔业正在发生变化。观察表明，鱼类的数量和类型已经发生了重大变化。这些变化的影响和原因将需要能够解决自然界鱼类动态的定量信息。传统的采样技术将无法解决这些动态，因此科学家将无法理解为什么会发生这些变化。该项目将开发网络，持续跟踪海洋界面处Mullica River-Great Bay河口的浮游动物，鱼类和海洋哺乳动物。这项工作将及时收集连续的记录，使我们能够第一次跟踪进出河口的动物运动。研究这个河口的一个优势是美国东北部最干净的河口海岸入口之一，使我们能够在一个原始河口解决动态问题。罗格斯大学海洋野外考察站（RUMFS）（http：//marine.rutgers.edu/rumfs/）位于穆利卡河#8722;大湾（MRGB）河口，是新泽西雅克库斯托国家河口研究保护区（JCNERR）的一部分。RUMFS的建筑、堤道和场地占地7英亩，位于新泽西南部靠近小蛋湾的半岛上。水在海洋和河口之间的交换主要通过一个狭窄但深（15米）的小鸡蛋入口，该入口直接邻近RUMFS设施（米）。与美国东北部的大多数河口不同，周边地区，包括大部分松树荒地流域，受到保护，免受大规模的人类干扰。因此，MRGB河口可能是东海岸最干净的河口海岸入口。这使得RUMFS成为一个独特的天然实验室。现有的RUMFS工作集中在长期鱼类时间序列采样上。这些调查提供了宝贵的信息，该地区的鱼类的多样性，生态和生活史，但是，采样是稀疏的空间和时间相对于这些系统的生态动态。虽然有一些关于个别物种的运动，通过标记/被动声学技术进出河口的信息，现有的信息是有限的鱼类的多样性和丰富的移动进出大湾有足够的分辨率链接的物理条件，鱼类生态。我们建议通过获得一个集成系统来填补这一关键的数据空白，该系统将BioSonic多频阵列与海底水听器相结合。该系统将部署在现场站附近。RUMFS毗邻（1.5米）一个深通道（~12米深），这是JC NERR的主要海洋入口。我们建议在河道中部署声学系统，以跟踪生物进出河口的运动。集成的多频主动/被动声学阵列将补充RUMFS 30年来每周进行的独一无二的浮游生物采样。增加拟议的声学阵列将加强正在进行的和新成立的研究生和本科生的努力，通过提供信息，这是在当地和全球层面上的实时回到校园。这些数据将通过开放获取数据和可视化软件提供给罗格斯大学和两所社区学院的广泛课程。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

Understanding the movements of fish and marine life in and out of coastal estuaries is a challenge for scientists and critical to understanding their ecology. Solving this problem is a critical issue as observations collected over the last 30 years suggests that the fisheries in the Mid- Atlantic is changing. Observations suggest the number and type of fish have been showing significant changes. The implications and reasons for the changes will require quantitative information that can resolve the dynamics of fish in nature. Traditional sampling techniques will not be able to resolve these dynamics, and as a result scientists will not be able to understand why these changes are occurring. This project will develop network that will continuously track zooplankton, fish, and marine mammals in the Mullica River-Great Bay estuary right at the interface of the ocean. This effort will collect a continuous record in time allowing us to for the first time track the animal movement in and out of the estuary. An advantage studying this estuary is one of the cleanest estuary-coastal inlets in the northeast United States allowing us to resolve dynamics in a pristine estuary. The Rutgers University Marine Field Station (RUMFS) (http://marine.rutgers.edu/rumfs/) is located in the Mullica River−Great Bay (MRGB) estuary which is part of the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve (JCNERR) in New Jersey.. The buildings, causeway, and grounds of RUMFS occupy seven acres on a peninsula close to Little Egg Inlet in southern New Jersey. Water is exchanged between the ocean and the estuary mainly through a narrow but deep (15 m) Little Egg Inlet that is directly adjacent (meters) to the RUMFS facility. Unlike most estuaries in the northeastern U.S., the surrounding area, including most of the Pine Barrens watershed, is protected from large-scale human disturbance. As a result, the MRGB estuary is probably the cleanest estuary-coastal inlets on the east coast. This makes RUMFS a unique natural laboratory. Existing RUMFS efforts have been centered around long-term fish time series sampling. These surveys have provided invaluable information about the diversity, ecology, and life histories of fishes in the region; however, the sampling is sparse in space and time relative to ecological dynamics of these systems. Although there is some information about individual species movements in and out of the estuary through tagging/passive acoustic techniques, the available information is limited on the diversity and abundance of fish moving into and out of Great Bay with sufficient resolution to link the physical conditions to the fish ecology. We propose to fill this crucial data gap by acquiring an integrated system that combines a multi-frequency combining a BioSonic multi-frequency array with a SubSea hydrophone. The system will be deployed adjacent to the field station. RUMFS sits adjacent (1.5 meters) to a deep channel (~12 meters depth) that is the major ocean entrance to JC NERR. We propose to deploy the acoustic system in the channel to track the movement of organisms in and out of the estuary. The integrated multi-frequency active/passive acoustics array will complement the one-of-a-kind plankton sampling RUMFS has been conducting on a weekly basis for 30 years. The addition of the proposed acoustic array will strengthen ongoing and newly formed graduate and undergraduate efforts by providing information that is relevant on both the local and global levels in real-time back to campus. The data will be served to a wide range of courses both at Rutgers as well as two community colleges through open access data and visualization software.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.